It's 'Go Time' Online For Dallas And Fort Worth ISDs: 'We've Been Preparing The Whole Summer'
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - It's back to school for students in the two largest districts in North Texas.
Both Dallas and Fort Worth ISDs begin online only on Tuesday.
"A lot of people want to say teachers have had their summer," said Angela McCowan, a first grade teacher for Dallas ISD. "No, we have not had our summers. We've been preparing for the fall the whole summer."
Whether they've got first grade students or high schoolers, DISD teachers have spent months revamping their curriculum to go virtual.
"That's something that's really time consuming and labor intensive," said Andrew Kirk, who teachers ninth grade. "We've been so used to face-to-face instruction."
DISD has been handing out tens of thousands of devices and hotspots over the past few weeks to get students ready for the first day.
The district also reset the digital passwords for all student accounts.
Some schools have held virtual "Meet the Teacher" nights to get families used to logging on.
"So it eased some parents' anxiety of how will it look for them tomorrow, entering the virtual classroom," McCowan said.
Teachers believe they're in a better position for online instruction than they were in March, but they're still expecting challenges.
"I can see this week being a lot of tech support, just calling parents, ensuring that they can connect, making sure that students have access to assignments," said Kirk. "My hope is just that everybody kind of extends grace collectively to each other in kind of adapting to this and adjusting. We're going to have to make a lot of adjustments I think."
On social media, several DISD parents have already posted about difficulty accessing their students account and long wait times to talk to someone in the tech department.
The district asks families to reach out to their specific school Tuesday if a student hasn't been able to log on and a teacher hasn't contacted them by 2:00 p.m.